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Feb 19, 2026
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Artificial Intelligence
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Google Unveils December Gemini Drop with Five Major App Updates
NewDecoded
3 min read
Image by Google
Google released its December 2025 Gemini Drop on December 19, bringing five significant feature updates to the Gemini app. The announcement centers on Gemini 3 Flash, described as the platform's biggest model upgrade yet, delivering what Google calls "next-generation intelligence at lightning speed." The model is now available globally and has replaced Gemini 2.5 Flash as the default in the Gemini app.
Enhanced Image Editing with Direct Annotation
The update introduces a new way to edit images through Nano Banana, Google's image generation and editing model. Users can now doodle their edits directly on images, marking a new level of control where they can click into an image, draw, and optionally add text to get specific results. This direct annotation approach allows users to circle, draw, or mark exactly where they want Gemini to make changes, moving beyond text-only descriptions.
Research and Information Features
The December Drop expands Gemini's research capabilities through NotebookLM integration, allowing users to add notebooks as sources within Gemini. This feature enables users to combine notebooks with notes and research for more grounded responses. For Gemini Advanced subscribers, Deep Research reports now include visuals with clear animations and images to help understand dense information at a glance.
Improved Local Discovery
Local results in the Gemini app have received a visual upgrade, now displaying photos, ratings, and real-world information sourced from Google Maps directly within chat conversations. This enhancement consolidates location-based decision-making within the Gemini interface, letting users explore and evaluate nearby shops and services without switching between apps.
Performance and Availability
>Gemini 3 Flash demonstrates frontier performance on benchmarks like GPQA Diamond (90.4%) and Humanity's Last Exam (33.7% without tools), rivaling larger frontier models and significantly outperforming Gemini 2.5 Pro. The model combines Pro-grade reasoning capabilities with Flash-level speed and efficiency, making advanced AI capabilities more accessible to everyday users. All features are rolling out through the Gemini Drops Hub throughout December.
This December update reveals Google's strategy to consolidate its AI ecosystem while intensifying competition with OpenAI. The timing is notable: Gemini 3 Flash launched just days after OpenAI released GPT-5.2, reflecting the rapid release cycles in the AI model race. By making Gemini 3 Flash the default model globally and integrating tools like NotebookLM directly into Gemini, Google is leveraging its distribution advantage across Search, Maps, and core productivity apps. The emphasis on visual features (from Nano Banana's direct annotation to visual Deep Research reports) suggests Google is betting on multimodal interaction as a key differentiator. This approach positions Gemini not just as a chatbot competitor but as an integrated workspace tool, blurring lines between conversation, research, and creation. The move could pressure competitors to similarly consolidate their ecosystems or risk fragmentation as AI capabilities become table stakes rather than standalone products.
